She chuckled and waved her hand at the industrial kitchen. "This doesn't really qualify as going out, but it is a date." She leaned toward him. "A date is a boy and a girl sitting at a table, drinking coffee, and chatting."
"Getting to know each other," he said.
Mattie swallowed.
At some point, she would need to let him see that she wasn't pretty all over and hope that he wouldn't run off as so many others had done.
Not yet, though.
First, she would get him to tell her all he knew about this island and if he'd thought about ways to escape it.
9
KIAN
Kian found Syssi in the living room, curled up on the sofa with a book she didn't seem to be reading. Her eyes were distant and unfocused, and he knew exactly where her mind had gone.
The same place he had been circling since yesterday.
If his mother's gut feeling was correct and Khiann was indeed alive and in stasis, why had her intuition been silent for five thousand years? Why had her suspicions arisen only recently?
Then again, it was possible that those thoughts had been lurking in her subconscious, which would explain how she'd managed to remain positive and accomplish all that she had after losing her truelove mate. In her heart of hearts, she must have known that he wasn't dead.
Then there was Navuh, who claimed to have known that for a fact and also where Khiann could be found, but he hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone for thousands of years.
"I can't stop thinking about it," Syssi said without looking up. "Your poor mother's face yesterday at dinner. She looked so torn. I don't envy her the decision she must make."
They had talked about nothing else at the family's Friday night dinner, with Amanda saying that Navuh could go back to his island in exchange for Khiann because they could always defeat him later.
There was something to that. Since Navuh was the only one who knew where Khiann was buried, they couldn't kill him before finding out. Then again, was Khiann worth the countless lives Navuh would destroy if allowed back on his island?
Even Annani couldn't make that call.
Which meant that they had to find another way to get Navuh to tell them where Khiann was. Annani hadn't tried compelling him yet, and she should, even though he was probably immune. Mia could come with her and enhance her power, while Morelle might be able to siphon Navuh's supernatural ability, weakening him enough to make him more susceptible to Annani's compulsion.
The other method could be threatening to harm Areana, who was the only person on the entire planet that Navuh cared about, but he would never believe they would go through with their threats.
Syssi set the book aside. "Do you think Navuh is manipulating her?"
"I don't know." Kian sat next to her and took her hand. "Navuh is a clever bastard, and if he was lying, his performance was incredible."
"You can have Andrew assess him," she suggested.
Kian shook his head. "Did you forget the filtering earpieces? They diminish the signals Andrew gets and mess with his ability to tell truth from lies."
"Then have him approach Navuh without them." She lifted a hand to stop Kian's retort. "You can have Andrew handcuffed so Navuh won't be able to use him to attack anyone or to get him free. Or even better, you could have Andrew wearing fake earpieces. Navuh would think that they were the filtering kind and not even try to compel him. We could dress him up in scrubs and claim that he's a nurse or a medical technician checking the equipment."
Those were all excellent ideas, and Kian intended to implement them, provided that his mother didn't lose patience and give Navuh what he wanted first.
The best scenario, though, would be if Eluheed had glimpsed a clue as to Khiann's whereabouts while providing visions for Navuh.
"First, I'm going to question the shaman. If he saw something that can point us to Khiann's location, we won't need to implement any of those creative measures."
Syssi smiled. "I'm glad that you are thinking of them as creative rather than useless."
"Your ideas are never useless." He lifted her hand to his lips and brushed them over her knuckles. "I trust your opinion above all others."
"That's sweet." She leaned her head on his arm. "But you still didn't tell me why you invited Elias and Tamira over. I know itwasn't to ask Elias if he had glimpsed something while serving Navuh because you invited them before Navuh made his offer."
